


To Sleep Perchance to Dream

by jane_fucking_seymour



Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Genre: Fluff, sleepy!Parr, the other queens show up at the end but they're not really featured
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-29
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2020-03-29 08:55:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19016590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jane_fucking_seymour/pseuds/jane_fucking_seymour
Summary: When Parr can barely keep her eyes open, Jane Seymour steps in.





	To Sleep Perchance to Dream

Parr continues reading, continues studying.

“How was your day, Parr?” Someone asks, but for some reason Parr doesn’t make the connection. She continues reading. “Parr?” The voice is a bit softer, a bit closer, but again, Pare is too sucked into the book to notice.

Eventually, a hand gently waves over Parr’s face and she blinks in surprise before looking over at the other woman. It’s Jane, and she’s concerned.

“Hello there,” Jane says quietly. “Welcome back.”

“Back?” Parr asks. She furrows her brow in confusion. “Back from where?”

“Wherever your mind was off to,” Jane teases. “I’ve been calling your name for the past few minutes.”

“Oh.” Parr says simply. Then, with nothing else to say, she tries to go back to the book.

Jane isn’t have any of it, taking the book, making sure her place is saved and closing it.

“When was the last time you got sleep?” Jane asks quietly.

“Last night.”

“And for how long?”

Parr hesitates for a moment. Jane continues.

“When was the last time you got more than three hours of sleep at night?”

Parr frowns deeper.

“I… don’t remember.”

“Clearly,” Jane says, still soft and light hearted. “Okay, Parr, lets get you to bed.”

“I’m fine, Jane,” Parr mumbles. “I can stay up a bit more. I want to read more about the…. about the…”

She frowns; what was she reading about, again-?

“- I’ve got you, it’s okay, love.”

Parr doesn’t know when her eyes had closed, but apparently they had. She also doesn’t remember leaning against Jane, but that had also happened at one time or another as well.

“What…?” Parr asks quietly. Jane gives her a soft smile, but she’s clearly concerned.

“You almost fell off the chair,” Jane says. “You’re falling asleep where you’re standing.”

“Oh.” Parr mumbles. She lets Jane lead her to wherever she’s being led to. It turns out to be Jane’s room.

Parr is sat on the bed for a moment before Jane takes a good look at her. Parr’s eyes are half-lidded; the girl’s barely able to keep them open at all. 

“Are you alright, dear?” Jane asks.

“Mhmm,” Parr mumbles.

“We really should talk about your sleep schedule tomorrow,” Jane says with a sigh. “Running yourself into the ground like this - where you can barely function - can’t be healthy.”

“Mhmm.”

“At least you had sweats on, I don’t think you’re awake enough to change, yeah?”

“Mhmm.”

“You… aren’t actually listening, are you?”

“Mhmm.”

“Right.”

Jane chuckles before going back over to Parr. When Catherine starts to sway dangerously, Jane takes initiative and gently pushes Parr’s shoulder. The girl lays down on the bed without any resistance.

“You’re more tired than usual, aren’t you?” Jane asks. Parr’s eyes are already closed and she’s out like a light as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Jane gently smooths out Parr’s hair, looking a bit concerned. Catherine’s been extremely tired before, but never so much that she couldn’t even stand, let alone hold a conversation. What was Parr researching that’s got her pushing so hard?

The book that Parr had been reading is on the table where Jane left it. Curiosity got the better of her and she is quick to pick it up.

The cover says  _ Children of the Six: How Henry VIII’s Children Fared After His Death _ .

That makes a bit more sense, especially looking through the book. At the start - when Catherine was still alive and Henry had died - there’s Parr’s neat handwriting, seemingly correcting the text or highlighting key phrases. The page Catherine was currently on, however, was the start of a chapter:

_ Chapter 17: After Parr _

“Oh, Catherine…” 

Parr managed to hear that - she’s a light sleeper - and groggily starts to awaken. It’s only been maybe three minutes since she first went to bed.

“Jane…?” Parr asks, trying to sit up. A gentle hand on the woman’s shoulder is enough for Parr to be stopped from moving.

“It’s alright, love, go back to bed,” Jane tries, but Parr shakes her head.

“No, I was… I was reading something… something important…” Parr starts, but Jane very simply enters the bed and wraps her arms around Parr. With a gentle hum, she places Catherine’s head on her chest. Her heartbeat was always enough to settle Howard and the rare Boleyn sighting, so she figured it would work with Parr as well.

“It will be here in the morning, I promise,” Jane mumbles. “Go to sleep.”

Parr makes a small whine, tries to move away from the soothing sounds of Jane’s breathing, heartbeat and words, but eventually succumbs not three minutes later.

In the morning, Katherine Howard notices that Jane wasn’t up and about yet.

It’s highly unusual already, but what’s even weirder is that Boleyn, Cleves and Aragon don’t seem to think it’s weird. They’re going about their morning routines just fine, albeit a bit quieter than normal.

“What’s going on, where’s mum-” Katherine starts, but Aragon hushes her. Boleyn puts a finger to her mouth - a “shh” motion - before she leads Katherine to Jane’s room. She quietly opens the door…

… to reveal Jane sitting on her bed, awake and reading a book. Catherine Parr, meanwhile, is dead to the world next to her, head in Jane’s lap.

“Oh,” Katherine says quietly. Jane looks up from her book and gives Howard a soft wave and a smile before looking down at Parr.

“We’ll wake her up in time for the matinee,” Boleyn says, “But not a minute before.” 

Howard nods in agreement. She motions at Jane, asking if she needed anything, but Seymour just smiles and shakes her head. 

Howard blows a kiss to Jane and then leaves, Boleyn quietly shutting the door.

 


End file.
